The trade organization representing the largest single group of mortgage producers in the country has added an unbiased consumer information center to its web site.

The Washington-based National Association of Mortgage Brokers' site, http://www.namb.org, now features a specially tailored version of the popular Mortgage 101software. With 160 pages of objective advice and counseling, and 16 interactive calculators to help answer questions regarding affordability, monthly payments and refinancing, the easy-to-use resource helps visitors through the often confusing, nerve-wracking home buying and mortgage lending processes.

NAMB, which is actually housed in McLean, Va., across the Potomac from the Nation's Capital, is the voice of the mortgage broker business. With more than 12,000 members and 39 state affiliates, the association provides government affairs representation, education and certification for the brokerage business.

Loan brokers are responsible for about three in every five residential mortgages. But in some states, notably California, they originate perhaps four of every five.

Although brokers write mortgages, they don't normally fund them. Rather, they take applications from would-be borrowers and shop them around for the best rates, terms and service from numerous sources. Usually, mortgages are closed in the name of the lender actually providing the money. But even if a loan is closed in the broker's name, it is almost always passed along within a few days.

Either way, though, they are experts who wield tremendous influence over their clients. Often, they provide sound guidance and wisdom. But in some cases, they have been accused of double-dipping by steering unknowing borrowers to companies which pay them fees on top of the compensation they already are receiving from their customers.

Mortgage 101 is already one of the most popular and reliable sources of information on the Internet. Mortgage 101.com receives more than 600,000 visitors a month, making it the third most favored e-mortgage site, according to Go2Net's 100hot.com.

The software was created by LION, or Lenders' Interactive Online Network, a Renton, Wash.-based company which brings together borrowers, real estate companies, mortgage brokers, lenders and other financial institutions to facilitate home loans in a quick, easy and efficient manner.

Published: February 4, 2000

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